


Let Three Be Three

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: OT3 AU verse fics [4]
Category: 16th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF, The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Miscarriage, Multi, Oneshot collection, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Polyamory, reference to past sexual assault
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-01-16 01:57:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 3,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21263219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Inspired by Lil/mihrsuri’s AU verse. All of these are fics originally posted on Tumblr. Check out her tag “OT3: political power trio” under mihrsuri.tumblr.com!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mihrsuri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/gifts).
  * Inspired by [It's Always Darkest (Before The Dawn)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15885693) by [mihrsuri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri). 

> Inspired by Lil/mihrsuri’s AU verse. All of these are fics originally posted on Tumblr. Check out her tag “OT3: political power trio” under mihrsuri.tumblr.com!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mihrsuri asked: Tudors OT3 verse prompt - 5 times her siblings showed Mary how much they loved her?

  1. Elizabeth goes to Mary when she hears the rumors that Father had considered setting Anne aside years ago, because she had only managed to deliver a daughter. Bessie is wise enough not to anger her father or pain her mother by bringing up bad memories, and she knows that her older sister is the only other person who would understand the pain of being sidelined on account of her sex. For Mary’s part, it does hurt to remember those bleak years, but Bessie trusts her – only her – to ease her mind.
  2. Thomas has never been close to Mary’s mother the way the girls are. He is the Prince of Wales that she was unable to deliver, the living symbol that Henry was right to set her aside, and so when one Christmas he confers an honor upon the Duchess of Derby as a sign of his esteem, Mary smiles at him, knowing he did it more for Mary’s sake than for his Aunt Katherine’s.
  3. George is a master of dry humor, rather than being brash like the majority of his family – a lot like his true sire, Mary thinks with dismay. But he has also inherited the Duke of Essex’s passion for languages, and to Mary’s delight, George’s favorite is Spanish, and he learns it well enough to tease Mary in her native language.
  4. Owen’s first treatise on theology is dedicated to “my most entirely beloved oldest sister, Mary, for her many virtues, her acumen, her devotions, and most importantly the respect she always had for mine own devotion.”
  5. Once, William breaks some fool boy’s nose for alleging that Mary’s daughter Katherine is Thomas Seymour’s bastard. She is shaken that someone would dare say such a thing, even years later, let alone in the company of the younger children, and when the scoundrel was executed long before her wedding to Philip of Bavaria, and even longer before Katherine was conceived. But she is most of all touched, that William defended her honor so.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mihrsuri asked: Tudors, Anne/Henry/Tom, ‘I will do better’ for the three sentence fic challenge

The oak door inches open and light filters through the crack, illuminating Anne and Tom curled up in each other on the bed. They do not stir. Henry watches them for a long time before he eases the door shut.


	3. Chapter 3

Mary has long stopped fearing that her mother might discover the truth of George, Edmund, and Pippa, carelessly confident in the natural aversion Katherine of Aragon would have for the man responsible for her annulment. So when her mother pulls her away for a private word while she is at court, Mary has no idea what it will be for until her mother speaks the dread words: “I have suspicions, my daughter, and I have had them for a long while, but it was not until this visit to court that I had them confirmed—”

_No, God, no, no no no…_

Despite it all, Mary is a princess twice over and she somehow keeps her expression blank as her mother details her evidence ( “the way Queen Anne looks at the Duke of Essex, and how he is always around the children, and the curl of George’s hair… I had not wanted to believe it… I know you would be able to confirm for me the truth”).

Mary has withstood the annulment of her parents marriage, nearly been violated by Thomas Seymour, led men to battle, and birthed two children, but nothing has ever been as hard as lying to her mother as she does now. How she despises it, but she must, she must, if her siblings are to survive, if she is to have any life at all, if the realm is to be at peace. To convince her mother that she is mistaken, that Mary is disgusted she would even think so, to hurt her mother like this ( “you have endangered me by even speaking such things — the walls have ears and you know how precarious the King’s favor is”).

Hurt blooms in Katherine’s eyes, but she is much chastened and severely ashamed of such wicked imaginings. She must be, if she wants to live. At least she has not suspected that Cromwell is also interested in the King — apparently she could not fathom such a thing of her husband.

When her mother is at last gone, Mary sinks into a chair and dismisses her maids so that she might have her collapse in peace. That her breathe become panicked gasps in silence and no one knows just how her stomach curdles. The worst part is she cannot hate anyone for this. Cannot hate Father, Anne, and Tom for loving one another, whatever the cost to her own rights, cannot hate Mother for her staunch conviction and devotion to Mary, cannot hate George and the twins for being innocent children that must be protected by a lie, cannot hate herself for doing what she must to survive.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mihrsuri asked: A prompt inspired by the fanvid - pre Prince Thomas when Henry is being :| & possessive/jealous - five times Anne & Tom comfort each other and one time Henry comforts them?

1\. Her second child rushes from her far too early in a torrent of blood, and Henry does not come to her, consumed with _ anger _ and _ disappointment _ and _ grief _ (this is the eighth child he has lost, while it is her first). Courtiers murmur their condolences, and to their credit, most of them are genuine. “It was God’s will.” “You are young, Your Majesty, with a fine daughter in the nursery and surely a fine brother to join her there as well soon.”

But it is Cromwell’s soft words, about the two daughters he lost to the sweating sickness, and his hand in hers, that allow Anne to smile for the first time in weeks.

2\. Someone sneers at Thomas “_lowborn gutter rat_” and at the feast that evening, Anne very pointedly snubs the offending miscreant and very pointedly asks Master Cromwell for a dance.

They do not touch.

3\. The Queen announces that she is with child again, but while the King is as visibly pleased as anyone else, the uneasy hesitance between them remains. Thomas had thought the new pregnancy would bring them closer, but Henry still seems wary of becoming too attached to this child, lest it be snatched away as well, and consequently keeps Anne at a distance as well. He does not know why, but he finds himself uncommonly angry with his king and lord, for behaving so towards his wife, and grieved on his queen’s behalf.

4\. “This child is my last hope," Anne says suddenly. 

They had been sitting in her chambers together, taking in the autumn air, idly discussing matters of state when she voices this fear. All at once, the words come out: "If it should be a girl -- or end in blood again -- suppose -- suppose he wishes to punish me -- all Katherine did was speak a few words in anger, and he had Mary taken away from her for years so that he might control her-- then Elizabeth -- he might --"

"If he takes such an idea into his head, I will be the first one to raise my sword against him," Thomas vows. "And Princess Mary would be the second to do so -- she would not allow you to suffer that which you rescued her from." He thinks Anne's fears all but unfounded, the result of too many sleepless nights and the wildness that pregnancy brings out in women, but he knows that dismissing them out of hand is not what she needs now, so instead he offers reassurance. And part of him wants her to know that he would fight for her, even against his liege lord.

5\. The Lord Chancellor sends her a message that he is unwell and cannot visit her today, for fear of infecting both her and the child. Anne feels strangely disappointed, as she had come to rely on Thomas for comfort almost -- almost like she used to do with Henry. But Henry is still disillusioned with her in a way that leaves husband and wife far apart, and Thomas is unwell, and she is alone with her worries. Just the same, she sends her own physician to Thomas and help him recuperate.

1\. Henry is distracted and distant, even after Anne’s second (third) pregnancy had been confirmed. Once, though, at a council meeting, he can feel the baby kicking even through the table and clears the room, just so that he might feel it, and invites Master Cromwell to feel it as well.


	5. Chapter 5

When Anne invites the disgraced Princess Mary back to court and has fresh gowns made for her and puts her in contact with her mother, Thomas Boleyn is surprisingly disapproving. “It’s good and well to be on cordial terms with the girl, since she is the King’s heir for the time being and the Emperor’s cousin, but there’s no need to go about treating her like your favorite younger sister and cementing her place at court. Remember that her loss will be our gain, should it ever come to that.”

Anne is surprised — her father is an experienced diplomat, and his pragmatism is not surprising, but surely he knows that honey attracts far more flies than vinegar too.

“But Papa, she is my stepdaughter as well, and she has been so lonely all these years, when she had every right to be here as well. And with all her connections, surely it is better to have her on our side and give her no reason to regret the Boleyns and Howards being in power. She will be welcomed to court — and I expect you to do so as well.”

Her voice is gentle, but below is an undercurrent of iron will. He will always be her beloved papa, but she is Queen as well, and will not hesitate to use her power to carry out what she believes to be right. And she believes their best bet is to make a friend of the Princess Mary.

(Years later, the memory of Anne’s unfailing warmth and compassion is enough for Mary to overlook adultery, sodomy, sin, insults to her mother, and bastards forever being ahead of her in the line of succession.)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A snippet from @mihrsuri‘s plot bunny of 1547 Rewrite the Stars!Mary time travelling and universe-crossing to OTL!Mary in 1535. Takes place in Hatfield, and, uh, let’s just assume they’ve gotten past the “So you’re not a witch?!” part.

It wasn’t enough for Father this time around that he not only separated her from Mother but also bastardized Mary in truth. This time around, he had ripped England from the bosom of the Holy Church, forced every Englishman to sign an  _ Oath _ to that effect, and executed anyone who was brave enough to say no.

“Thomas More was executed not a week ago,” her younger self informs her dully, and Mary feels grief tightening around her throat – and fear. If this Father could execute his old friend, what could he do to his daughter? And she had thought that swearing on the Bible to remain silent about her half-siblings’ paternity was difficult. 

Unfortunately, Mary does not know any other way back to her father’s favor. Her younger self will have to repudiate everything – mother, faith, and self. That too, when martyrs have shed their blood for that truth. 

It seems in every timeline, she is fated to compromise her way back to her father’s favor.

She just wishes that for this younger self, compromise didn’t meet flat-out concession. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mihrsuri asked: "in chains" as a whump prompt. Trigger warnings for harm to children, trauma, and implied child abuse.

Chafing spirals up and down Pippa’s thin forearms. It’s ugly and mottled and red and raw.****

It reaches almost to her elbows. It lingers for weeks afterwards. 

It hurts to do anything with her hands.

Mary sews long sleeves that loop around Pippa’s middle fingers, sleeves in both Tudor colors and in her youngest sister’s favorite shade of blue. Cat coaxes Aunt Pippa into dictating letters in a quavery voice, letters that her elder niece transcribes. And when she can abide human contact, she rests her head in Thomas’s lap and he massages her bruised arms in gentle, practiced strokes.


	8. you always meant the world to me. i’m sorry i let you forget that.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For mihrsuri, who asked “you always meant the world to me. i’m sorry i let you forget that. (Tudors OT3)" for hurt/comfort prompts.

Henry kisses her fiercely, knots his fingers in her hair tightly, grasps her hand in his firmly, all with more vigor than he has ever done so before, even in the halcyon days of their courtship. In public before the court and at council meetings, he pointedly asks for her advice for all to see, and in private, he does so with Thomas as well. There is an edge of desperation to his movements that was never there before, a bone-deep need to reassure them that they are his dark-haired loves and that they need not fear otherwise ever again.

Within Anne (and Tom) as well is a bone-deep want to believe him, to trust in the sincerity of his attentions, and oh how they do. But nothing can fill the yawning chasms within them made up of the blackness of the Tower, and perhaps nothing ever will.


	9. healing is not linear, but it’s always moving forward.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For mihrsuri, who asked "“healing is not linear, but it’s always moving forward. (OT3 verse, Mary)".
> 
> Contains mentions of past sexual assault and trauma.

There’s nothing definite that sets it off. She cannot blame it on some grim anniversary coming around, or a courtier making an irreverent comment, or even some stray smell to trigger a memory. One day, she is fine, and the next day, the nightmares return in full onslaught, and she shrinks from Philip’s loving touch. 

She wants to scream, scream, scream. A royal execution, years of happy marriage, and two children later yet still Thomas Seymour’s fingers burn upon her wrists. What will her husband say when he knows how feeble the reasons are behind her shirking of her marital duties?

Mary should not have thought so poorly of her Philip. When she confesses her weakness, his eyes grow dark with understanding, no anger or pity, and his hands are warm on hers. “You have brought yourself this far, my love, and you will return there.”


	10. "It’s not easy to hide when your heart’s on full view."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mihrsuri asked, “OT3 verse, It’s not easy to hide when your heart’s on full view.”

The nights belong to Thomas. His days are given to walking the boundary between councillor and lover, between advisor and husband, but the nights are his, when he is free to worship his king and his queen.

Henry calls him  _ my raven, my dark-haired love, _ and Thomas wonders at how apt an appellation it is. His pulse quickens and his step lightens when the sun sinks below the horizon, and he knows himself a creature of the night. 


	11. "The way he pulled his body in, out of shyness or shame or a desire not to disturb the air around him.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked “OT3 verse, The way he pulled his body in, out of shyness or shame or a desire not to disturb the air around him.”

Thomas always curls up in his sleep, his limbs curved like a question mark, a crooked finger, a beckoning, an invitation. Henry has always loved to take him up on that invitation.

The night after he and Anne are freed from the Tower, Thomas curls up in bed, his body contorted like a fetus, a soldier avoiding gunfire in the trenches. Henry closes his eyes and imagines he did not see.


	12. Mary, her siblings being protective of her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mihrsuri asked "OT3 Verse: Mary being touched by her siblings being protective of her". Mentions of pregnancy and fainting in this chapter.

Mary’s pregnancy with Cat was as smooth as though it had been choreographed, leaving her unprepared for the havoc that Ana wreaks while still in her womb. One afternoon, while enjoying a meal outdoors with her siblings, she makes to stand, mindful of her barely-visible bump. Abruptly, the greenery of the forest swims around her, and Mary feels her mind fill with fog. Distantly, she registers that she’s falling and can do nothing to regain her balance.

Thomas and George, striplings though they are, both move to catch her, and slowly they lower her back to the ground. Elizabeth calls for pillows and something against which Mary can rest, and while the ladies-in-waiting scurry to do her bidding, Bessie checks Mary’s forehead and whispers to her that she must have overtaxed herself, and both mother and child need their rest.


	13. 5 times Thomas Cromwell's secret marriage was obvious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mihrsuri asked, "5 times Thomas Cromwell was really obviously Henry and Anne’s third spouse in retrospect?"

  1. The Princess Mary is a devout Catholic and fiercely proud to be Katherine of Aragon’s daughter even if she also considers Queen Anne her mother, yet she accords the reformer Thomas Cromwell a degree of respect that raises eyebrows all around the court, to the point that after Thomas Seymour’s attempted assault, Master Cromwell is the first one she summons to her bedroom, because, “he is the only one who can be trusted”.
  2. King Henry never looks so happy as when Queen Anne asks the Duke of Essex to dance with her.
  3. When asked why he does not remarry, Master Cromwell points out that he already has a son and heir, and besides, “my duty to England and its King and Queen is foremost in my heart and mind, so much that I would be a poor husband to any woman I wed”.
  4. George, Owen, and Pippa all have a curl to their hair that their mother lacks, no matter how often the court remarks that they take after their Howard ancestors.
  5. Thomas Cromwell often wears a ring on a chain around his neck, obviously commissioned at great price, and on his death it is found to contain portraits of his King and Queen.


	14. Thomas Cromwell, Panchakanya meme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mihrsuri asked "Thomas Cromwell, OT3 verse" for the Panchakanya meme. Warnings for minor injury and hunger.

**Ahalya**

an important first for them ||  _ deception  _ ||  _ disguise  _ || something they waited for || kill two birds with one stone

Princess Mary’s silent disapproval should not cut Thomas so deeply. He knows that she will not reveal their secret to the world; her tongue is too bridled by self-preservation and love. He knows she will never treat George as lesser than Bessie or Tommy; her heart is too kind for her to resent a child, however she views his legitimacy. He knows that it is natural for her not to understand; her soul has been forged in the flames of papal and paternal rejection.

If he is coldly honest, he does not  _ need _ the princess’s approval or liking. Of course, he would never wish any ill on his consorts’ eldest daughter, but Mary is not dear to him the way she is to Henry and Anne, and so long as she does not create trouble, her personal feelings do not matter to him.

And yet, her voice is coolly composed whenever they meet in public, and her eyes never quite meet his, and he feels himself a bruised boy on the streets of Putney. 

**Draupadi**

one grudge they held || favorite hairstyle || baptism of fire ||  _ five finger discount _ || one big change that they wrought

Theft is a sin. But he’s barely sixteen and has just fled across an ocean to escape Norwich. He is well rid of being the man’s gutter rat, but he is also rid of the man’s considerable wealth that had fed and clothed him. Until Thomas can find himself a steady source of income, he’ll have to resort to secreting away crusts of bread and sticks of meat from inattentive vendors.

If this were some biblical parable, the food would curdle Thomas’s stomach, to teach listeners that even penury is no excuse for thievery, but it is the most delicious fare he has ever had.

**Sita**

friends are the family we choose for ourselves ||  _ green thumb _ || captive audience || no good deed goes unpunished || true blue

Liz Cromwell, formerly Liz Wykes, is an extraordinarily fastidious woman, meaning that it is a rare sight for her to still have dirt embedded under her fingernails by nightfall. She must have been in good cheer after spending the afternoon gardening. Thomas makes no mention of it, merely kissing her on the forehead and burying his nose in her hair. She must have washed it in rosewater, and the flower scent emanates from her in waves. Thomas closes his eyes and thinks of all that he never thought to have.

**Tara**

one prediction they made || communal cup ||  _ one injury/wound/illness they healed or cured _ || on the tail end || keen acumen

The uprising was in the end made up of no more than a few dozen peasants and easily quelled, but Henry still took a nasty wound to his side. Thomas begs leave to tend to the King’s injury alone. “He is my most trusted advisor, and a veteran of wars beside; he can treat me as well as any physician,” Henry says imperiously, composed for the court’s benefit, but once everyone else is dismissed, his Tudor temper rears itself.

“The  _ nerve  _ of those miscreants,” he hisses through clenched teeth, as Thomas wipes away blood with a clean cloth. “You’ve worked so hard to strike a balance between Rome and reform, and yet they would undo all your labors and disrupt the peace?”

“Be still, Your Majesty. I think some of your ribs are bruised, in attention to your gash.”

Henry subsides, but his eyes remain fiery. “They don’t deserve you as their Prime Minister. They don’t deserve you, my raven.”

“Lift up your back, Henry, I need to wrap this bandage around you.” 

Thomas continues his work, methodical as ever, but there is a faint color to his cheeks and a dip in his chin.

**Mandodari**

_ frog in boiling water _ || mother lode || hospitality in a time of war || one time they intervened || labor of love

Frances St. Leger praises Thomas on the wisdom of his measures he proposed to Parliament, wonders aloud at the degree of trust the King places in him, and tells him that his doublet brings out the color of his eyes, and still Thomas thinks her nothing more than a young woman being polite.

(Behind doors, Henry and Anne bury their foreheads in their hands.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frances St. Leger is an OC of mine, meant to be one of the young women who flirted with an oblivious Thomas Cromwell, irritating Henry and Anne.


End file.
